Late payments are one of the most difficult things to deal with as a business owner. Not only is it an administrative burden to chase overdue invoices, but the resulting cash flow challenges can impact your business’s stability. 

It’s estimated that accounts teams alone spend about 520 hours per year on manually processing invoices, supplier enquiries, purchase order matching, onboarding suppliers, and payment reconciliation. To simplify how you take and make payments, automating the systems across your business that deal with invoicing, accounting and finance is a must. By doing so, you’ll save valuable time on administrative tasks, reduce the risk of human error and double data entry, and begin to build a system of insightful business metrics which you can use for future decision making. 

Fortunately, there are tools that your business can implement which will help you get paid faster and put an end to late payments for good. 

What systems should a business automate first?

Generally, any system in a business can be automated, but key areas that will directly address late payments can include:

• Accounts receivable systems and processes: Chasing up late payments involves manual processes such as sending email reminders and making phone calls until the invoice is paid. While automatic reminders provide some time savings, it doesn’t increase the likelihood of payment. Instead, a solution like Spenda makes it easy for users to manage and schedule their invoice payments and benefit from a range of flexible payment options, such as credit card payments, bank transfers and BNPL.
• Integration between systems: Seamless integration between your existing accounting and ERP systems and the digital tools you use to automate systems and processes in your business will help you work from a single source of digital truth by eliminating the need for manual data entry. You’ll save time and reduce errors.
• Payment systems: With an integrated payment system, you can take payments, improve debtor management, set up buy now, pay later plans (BNPL), get access to working capital, and boost your cash flow all from one intuitive system. Key benefits of these systems include reductions in supply chain friction, improved data accuracy, reduced business costs, stronger cash flow forecasting, and reduced fraud risk.